How to create a spotlight effect?

[annber]

Hello,
I have tried this morning for two hours to create a light effect for this lighthouse using Model Converter and an online tutorial. Note that what I want to achieve is to place the spotlight on the wall so the wall itself lights, as to showcase the building.

The effect i want is demonstrated by the following picture, which I believe is from the default yatch in FSX:

How do I achieve the desired effect. The lighthouse was made with Sketchup. Thanks!!

 

[GaryGB]

Hello:

You could create a Night texture (*_LM.BMP or *_LM.DDS) mapped as a darkened copy of the Day texture in MCX.

Use a graphics utility to fade / 'feather' spotlight beam edges into the surrounding darkened copy of the Day texture.

Or, worded differently, use a a graphics utility "Brightness" tool set 'subtractive' or 'negative' so that it will "Darken" and set it also at a lower intensity / higher transparency ...to fade the spotlight beam edges into the surrounding darkened copy of the Day texture.

GaryGB

 

[annber]

Thanks Gary, I will research your approach to it. I kind of thoughts perhaps just placing a spotlight or street light next to it would give me the desired effects.

 

[GaryGB]

The newest feature of "Dynamic Lighting" in P3Dv4, and IIRC some old SCASM / ASM methods could project a light beam from moving objects onto certain scenery objects as well as the ground ...that would 'illuminate' (or brighten) the target object in FS2002 and FS2004.

In FSX such "light splashes" are usually semi-transparent 3D MDL 'cones' with a more visible 'brighter' textured circular or rectangular base for the cone, which may show a problem of flickering with a Moire' pattern when super imposed directly over the closest surface of the building and/or ground when there is not an interposed distance of at least 8 inches / 0.21 Meters between the cone base and the object over which the 'light splash' is to located.

A 3D light would be very difficult if not impossible to use with a lighthouse which itself is 'cone-shaped' and angles away from a spotlight pointed at it from any angle.

Thus, for FSX, one might find it easiest to instead use the above edits to a *_LM Night texture with static MDL-based objects.

GaryGB

 

[=rk=]

This is an example of the technique Gary describes. A good way to accomplish it is to add a very dark layer to the day texture, and then erase portions to represent floodlight wash:

Here are two examples of using an actual effect. This is the ramp light effect, available here in the downloads section. What you will see is that the effect actually works as a "brightening lens," it does not directly illuminate, but anything viewed through it appears brighter. Applied properly, it can provide the illusion of illumination to both objects and background:

But the effect of this effect has mixed results. I'd say this one was probably placed too high, but there are a lot of different elevations in this model, that one would have to look through the "lens," to see illuminated:

Here is a combination of the two techniques. The pad has a night texture to represent floodlight wash, additionally the default "fx_landing.fx" has been placed in two orientations facing backwards and toward the deck. There is also a row of the same effect within the hangar to represent overhead fluorescent lights that aren't visible in these images:

You can see the pad, the walls of the hangar and the cupola interior have all had a night texture applied, as well as the faces of the floodlights. Also the wash of the effect is visible in the water. As the helicopter nears the deck, the second light apparently becomes visible, illuminating the deck and also the effects representing the hangar lights become visible, as if switched on.

It seems like a little more detail than was intended for a static ship model, but does serve as an example of what is possible. Keep in mind that you are not constrained to default effects either, you can tune them to a vast degree and preview the "effects" of your tuning within the simulator after each change, without restarting or even ending the session.

 

[annber]

I don't want to let go of the chance to comment on this.
This is the beauty of forums like FSdeveloper, where people who have very limited knowledge, (that would be me), can learn from people like Gary or Rick, who are willing to spare some of their valuable time to help others with their vast knowledge, which btw they are not obligated to share.
Of course most of their advice above might seem daunting at first, specially if you are not use to the terminology, but when I started I had no idea how to even use SbuilderX, ADE, Model Converter, DTXbmp, and some other tools. Now thanks to people like Gary and Rick, and many others, I have gone from zero knowledge to highly limited knowledge. Someday I hope to break the barrier and get to basic knowledge with your help.
Thanks again Gary & Rick for your help.